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The Goodness of God, Part Three

After Ezra led the people in reading the Law of God, they responded with a declaration of repentance and praise as they recounted God’s goodness. Alistair Begg explains that God’s people experience God’s goodness despite our disobedience, and His goodness toward us is sometimes demonstrated through His discipline. Like the Israelites, we are bent on rebellion and refuse to listen to His Word, but in His goodness, God does not forsake us.

16“But they and our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments.17They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them.18Even when they had made for themselves a golden2 calf and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,’ and had committed great blasphemies,19you in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud to lead them in the way did not depart from them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way by which they should go.20You gave your good Spirit to instruct them and did not withhold your manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst.21Forty years you sustained them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.

22“And you gave them kingdoms and peoples and allotted to them every corner. So they took possession of the land of Sihon king of Heshbon and the land of Og king of Bashan.23You multiplied their children as the stars of heaven, and you brought them into the land that you had told their fathers to enter and possess.24So the descendants went in and possessed the land, and you subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hand, with their kings and the peoples of the land, that they might do with them as they would.25And they captured fortified cities and a rich land, and took possession of houses full of all good things, cisterns already hewn, vineyards, olive orchards and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filled and became fat and delighted themselves in your great goodness.

26“Nevertheless, they were disobedient and rebelled against you and cast your law behind their back and killed your prophets, who had warned them in order to turn them back to you, and they committed great blasphemies.27Therefore you gave them into the hand of their enemies, who made them suffer. And in the time of their suffering they cried out to you and you heard them from heaven, and according to your great mercies you gave them saviors who saved them from the hand of their enemies.28But after they had rest they did evil again before you, and you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies, so that they had dominion over them. Yet when they turned and cried to you, you heard from heaven, and many times you delivered them according to your mercies.29And you warned them in order to turn them back to your law. Yet they acted presumptuously and did not obey your commandments, but sinned against your rules, which if a person does them, he shall live by them, and they turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck and would not obey.30Many years you bore with them and warned them by your Spirit through your prophets. Yet they would not give ear. Therefore you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.31Nevertheless, in your great mercies you did not make an end of them or forsake them, for you are a gracious and merciful God.

32“Now, therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love, let not all the hardship seem little to you that has come upon us, upon our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, our fathers, and all your people, since the time of the kings of Assyria until this day.33Yet you have been righteous in all that has come upon us, for you have dealt faithfully and we have acted wickedly.34Our kings, our princes, our priests, and our fathers have not kept your law or paid attention to your commandments and your warnings that you gave them.35Even in their own kingdom, and amid your great goodness that you gave them, and in the large and rich land that you set before them, they did not serve you or turn from their wicked works.36Behold, we are slaves this day; in the land that you gave to our fathers to enjoy its fruit and its good gifts, behold, we are slaves.37And its rich yield goes to the kings whom you have set over us because of our sins. They rule over our bodies and over our livestock as they please, and we are in great distress.

Series: God's Work, God's Way, Volume 2

Other messages in: God's Work, God's Way, Volume 1

The people of Israel returned from exile and joyously rebuilt the temple, but joy gave way to discouragement as the city of Jerusalem lay in ruins. Enter Nehemiah: a gifted leader moved to action by compassion for his people and concern for the glory of God. But the Book of Nehemiah isn’t a tutorial on leadership. It’s the record of God’s faithfulness to His people as He equipped them to do His work for His glory.

In Volume One of this series, Alistair Begg explains that God accomplishes His purposes through His people as they depend on the resources He provides. We see the significance of prayer in the life of the Church, the vitality of God’s Word as it realigns our hearts, and the necessity of taking practical steps to achieve what God has called us to do. God’s people must remain unified and committed to the task that God has given, secure in the conviction that God’s work done in God’s way will display God’s glory.

Other messages in: God's Work, God's Way, Volume 2

The people of Israel returned from exile and joyously rebuilt the temple, but joy gave way to discouragement as the city of Jerusalem lay in ruins. Enter Nehemiah: a gifted leader moved to action by compassion for his people and concern for the glory of God. But the Book of Nehemiah isn’t a tutorial on leadership. It’s the record of God’s faithfulness to His people as He equipped them to do His work for His glory.

In Volume Two of this series, Alistair Begg reminds us that God calls His people to obey His Word and that failure to do so has real implications. God’s people in Nehemiah’s day heard His Word proclaimed, and their hearts were stirred to worship and obedience. When ordinary people with ordinary lives resolve to obey God, He will accomplish extraordinary things as God’s work is done in God’s way.

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Truth For Life is the teaching ministry of Alistair Begg and is committed to teaching the Bible with clarity and relevance so that unbelievers will be converted, believers will be established, and local churches will be strengthened.